Seeing Productivity as an Experiment

One of the things I love about my work is the chance to do things better. On the micro-level, this means accepting the days that completely burn you out and leave you bleary-eyed. That's what I've called in the past a "good kind of tired".

The flip side of a grinder sort of day is the promise of another chance- the next day, to do it all again. And do it differently. This is when productivity seems like an experiment- on yourself that is. Like tinkering, productivity is a matter of push and pull, tweak and recalibrate.

To the productive person, this could mean:

Using a different pad of paper for higher level thinking

Using more (or less?) software to manage your projects

Taking a break at a different time of the day to recharge and renew

To marry this with some spiritual principles, we think naturally of hope. Hope is a powerful virtue that allows us to see beyond the crazy day and killer schedule. Beyond hope, we look to Scripture for some well-grounded metaphors. Lamentations 3:22-23 says the following:

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

God provides new graces for new moments of work. This work can be that of a stay-at-home mother or a CEO. It doesn't really matter. His "mercies" simply don't have a shelf life and as long as we have breath, God gives us opportunity after opportunity to try again.